They became simpler and more selfish: scientists analyzed changes in songs

Over the past 40 years, popular song lyrics have become more simplistic, repetitive, and selfish. This is confirmed by the results of a study conducted by a group of scientists led by Eva Zangerle, Doctor of Computer Science from the University of Innsbruck, Scientific American reports.

Scientists analyzed the lyrics of English-language songs from the five most popular genres – rap, country, pop, R&B and rock, released from 1980 to 2020.

Using machine learning, they extracted key linguistic features of these songs, such as word relationships, types of emotional cues, readability scores, and vocabulary richness. They then developed and trained additional computer models to classify and analyze these characteristics by year on a representative subset of 12,000 songs.

The study also found that modern music lyrics convey more negative emotions and less positive emotions than in the past, and that songs have become more subjective, with more frequent use of the pronouns “I ” and “I”, confirming previous research on changes in textual content.

However, some scientists criticize the results of the study, because the computer models in some cases cannot correctly determine the emotional message of some negative words with the condition if they are used in a different sense .

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According to Caleb Goldschmitt, an ethnomusicologist at Wellesley College and co-editor of the Journal of Popular Music Studies, lyrics are only a small part of what makes up a song. Even as lyrics become simpler, musical factors such as texture and rhythm seem to become more complex, Goldschmitt said.

It is not yet clear why, for example, there are more repetitions of choruses. Michael Varnum, a cultural psychologist at the University of Arizona, suggests that this phenomenon is partly explained by the amount of new music.

“When people are faced with many choices, they tend to go with what is simpler and more obvious,” he said.

According to experts, the simplification of content can reflect changes in the way music is listened to. Previous research in this area has also shown that nowadays people are more likely to listen to music in the background and not pay attention to the lyrics. Therefore, songs with a large number of choruses are often popular.

Zangerle says artists can also create simpler, catchier songs through repetition to compete in the streaming music market, giving modern people an affordable way to choose from a huge number of songs.

It was previously reported that psychologists have discovered the formula for the happiest music. Turns out people like seventh chords because they add interest to tracks.